A Book Study and a FREEBIE!

Hello buddies-

In my never-ending attempt to be a better teacher I have been devouring professional texts this summer.  Most recently I am reading Teaching Reading in Small Groups by Jennifer Serravallo.  Although I am only on the third chapter this book has confirmed a great deal of what I already knew about reading instruction and has provided some great tips or strategies.  

Jennifer talks about a Reading interest inventory and the need to learn about students as readers.  I have a reading inventory a colleague shared with me a few years ago and until I read this book I was happy with it.

I used the questions posted in the book to create the Reading Interest Inventory shared in this post.  It's not pretty- I warn you. I plan on posting the reading inventory into my Google Classroom and had to make it in Google Docs (which I love for functionality, but not so much for design). 

You can access the Reading Interest Inventory HERE  

Hope it helps you get to know your readers. 
Your buddy, 
Damien 

Literature Love Letters- An ELA Activity and a FREEBIE

Hello friends!

My kiddos and I have been working hard on analyzing characters. We have been using some GREAT novels for the skill:

-Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone: (this is our core novel-tier 1 that I use to model the skills to my kids)
-Holes: my mid level guided reading novel
-George Washington's Socks: low level guided reading novel
-Among the Hidden Series: challenge level guided reading novel

We have broken down character traits into three parts: 
1. Physical appearance 
2. Character traits
3. Background information

We have spent a great deal of time digging deeper in order to understand all our Hogwarts characters. One of the projects I did in class to give my students the opportunity to practice their skills, and prove mastery, is Literature Love Letters.

I introduce the project telling the students that we will be writing love letters. They groan and I love it. I tell them their love letters will have to include all of the character traits of the person they are writing to and provide some examples. (Think-Anthony, I love your long brown curls; Kaitlin I love how kind you are; etc). Then, because I have a certain flair for the dramatic, I tell the gang they will be writing letters to each other. They groan again and I love it more! I let this go one for a bit and then I tell them that they will be writing to any characters from the novels they are reading or have read this year. Now the excitement, and relief, kicks in.

Here is a sample of the product available on my TPT store

The activity I am sharing today includes brainstorming pages, heart shape paper for your final copy, and a VERY simple template to trace the shoulders and head of the character. The students will write a love letter to their chosen character expressing all their character traits. They have fun choosing evil characters and writing about how they LOVE their evil ways. I also encourage the kids to sign the love letters "yours truly" or "your secret admirer" so that they feel comfortable writing to whomever and whatever they want.

Here are some of this years Literature Love Letters:

Letter in progress...

A love letter to Voldemort and Hermione

Voldemort

Dumbledore

Dumbledore, King Flint Sky God (From The Well of Sacrifice), and Stanley Yelnats (from Holes)

Peeves, Voldemort, and Hermione from the Harry Potter Series

The Warden (of Holes fame)

Ron Weasley and Prof. Flitwick

The display outside the classroom

Check out my project at my TPT store HERE. I will happily send a freebie to the first three followers who comment below telling me who they would write their literature love letter to. Don't forget to include your email in the post so I can send the file to you.

Your buddy,
Damien

SmartBoard Perimeter and Area FREEBIE!

Hello Buddies-


Today I created a SmartBoard Activity, minus many of the SmartBoard bells and whistles, to get my kids to apply their Math Critical Thinking Skills and their knowledge of Area and Perimeter.  It is a simple activity but really forces your kids to think about what they are doing when it comes to finding and applying Area and Perimeter.  Did I mention that it is FREE?


Anthony's Pool Problem (Area/Perimeter in Action)


Make sure to check out our TPT Store for the activity. 
Our TPT Store


:0)
-Damien